Robin's Diary
Robin Luscombe
Managing Director Luscombe Motors Ltd | 2022 Car Dealer Lifetime Achievement | 4 x Suzuki Dealer of the Year | 5 x AM Award Winner | Auto Trader Retailer of the Year 2018 & 2020 | 5 x Motor Trader Award Winner
Posh Raffles, Gambling, it’s too much for me….
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We are constantly being told we are suffering a financial crisis, low wages, high prices, no money, yet we are all repeatedly bombarded with offers to gamble – be it on a sporting event, bingo, raffles for million-pound houses, phone-line raffles (so-called competitions) and the like! They must be successful for whoever is behind them, because the cost to advertise them isn’t cheap – and let’s face it, they are not doing it for love - it’s all for profit and it’s all a gamble.
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When I was young, the only way to gamble was on the football pools or in a grubby bookmaker’s shop. Nowadays it’s fashionable, it’s trendy and the marketing departments have done a great job making it mainstream and normal. We are told the country is broke - it needs more money, we need to be more productive - but gambling doesn’t produce anything other than profit for the bookmakers and hardship for all but a select few.
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If the country needs to increase its revenue, would it work to tax winnings as unearned income, with capital gains tax? What’s the difference between going to work all your life, saving up for your old age, and then being taxed, as opposed to gambling all your life, saving nothing and expecting the country or hard-working savers to bail you out?
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"In gambling, the many must lose in order that the few may win."? George Bernard Shaw
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